


Miss Murder

by Josies



Series: No Saints Without Sinners [12]
Category: Saints Row
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Feel-good, Gen, One Shot, Pining, Saints Row 2 - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-04 19:26:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15153992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josies/pseuds/Josies
Summary: While still struggling with Aisha's death, Johnny finds love in a hopeless place.





	Miss Murder

**Author's Note:**

> I've been waiting to write something Wholesome and this is it!! I've also been dealing with an awful heatwave for the past couple of weeks stealing away all my creativity, but with all the kudos you guys have been blessing me with, I managed to edit this one out! Hope you're all having a lovely summer.
> 
> M, I hope you like this. <3

 

* * *

  **May 2009**

* * *

 

 

Doris holds her bandana-wrapped arm while checking the area around her for stragglers, squinting her eyes in the dark to make sure they caught every last Samedi that tried to take over the docks in Sunnyvale Gardens for the second time that week. She spits blood on the ground, wincing at her split lower lip. Men like to launch surprise attacks on her, thinking she's easy prey for her size — they never notice the blade she jams into their throat until they have blood gushing out of the wound, until they're losing their vision along the life running in their veins for their insufferable stupidity.

"Boss!" Johnny's voice echoes from inside the warehouse behind her.

"Outside!"

The huge metal door rolls open and he steps out, walking up to her while cleaning his knife with a rag. "Yo, you okay?" He asks as he glances at her wounded arm.

"Yeah, it's just a scratch," she says and brushes him off with a shrug. They got separated during the firefight and she got attacked immediately after. Surprisingly, these arrogant attacks almost never happen when Johnny's by her side. It irritates her, but then again, she's kind of into it.

"We got 'em all, right?"

"I think so."

"What about our guys?"

"Lorenzo's dead. Shaundi's takin' Cass and Mickey to get patched up. Looked pretty bad." She frowns, trying to figure out replacements, as bullets to the chest tend to take people out of the game for a while, if not for good. At the start she knew all members by name, but with the crew growing so quickly, it's getting harder. After all the betrayal and shit that went down with the crew in the past, she has to keep an eye on everyone, excluding Johnny. He's the only one she trusts with her life, though her other lieutenants are getting there, too. She knew from the start she had to get rid of her general mistrust of people, because trusting no one would get her nowhere, and failure wasn't an option.

"Both of 'em?"

"They got pinned down at the gate when the fuckin' backup broke through."

"Shit."

"I'm startin' to think the Samedis don't even want the docks back," she says as she stares at the bodies spread around them. She scrunches up her nose at the smell of blood and fish. "They're just attackin' us to leave a bunch of dead bodies here, so the cops'll be all up our asses."

"How's Kowalski takin' this?" Johnny asks, referring to the woman in charge of the docks. She decides what comes in and what goes out, and who makes a profit out of it. She was one of the first people Doris contacted to strike a deal with.

"She's mad. Durin' the past two years she's only had to deal with some minor brawls here. I'm gonna have to send her, like, a full box of that expensive-ass cognac she likes." She sighs. The woman's an old customer back from when she worked at Tee'N'Ay. She knew treating an ex-police officer well would come in handy one day, but even though they have a history, Carol Kowalski still makes it hard to keep her happy. She's definitely earned her tough lady reputation.

"Suppose we gotta start payin' her more?"

"For now, yeah," she says with a nod. "And we gotta max the security."

"You want my guys here?"

"Can you spare any?"

Johnny crosses his arms over his chest, staring out at the dark lake as he takes a few seconds to go through the locations of his men in his mind. "One, probably two."

"Make sure they're at the headquarters tomorrow, then," she says while looking for her pack of smokes. "We need to discuss this shit in depth."

"Got it."

They stand there quiet for a minute, Johnny typing a message on his phone and Doris smoking a post-murder cigarette, until his jacket starts making weird noises, catching her attention.

"Johnny?" She asks, raising an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"What?"

"That noise," she says, pointing at his chest and the unusual lump right over his left pec.

"Oh, right," he says, as if he completely forgot about the noisy thing moving around under his jacket. He unzips it and carefully pulls a kitten covered in dirt out of the breast pocket.

Doris stares at the kitten with far too many questions all filling up her mind at once. "Just—what? How?"

"Ain't it cute?" Johnny asks like there's absolutely nothing unusual about him carrying a cat around in his pocket.

"Where the hell did you get that?"

"Found it under a car durin' the fight."

"And you just took it?"

"It was alone. I couldn't just leave it there."

"Johnny," she sighs, dropping her cigarette to the ground and grinding it under her heel, "you sure the mother wasn't around?"

"Come on, look at it," he says, lowering the kitten for her to see it better in the dark. "It's all weak and dirty."

"Well, you ain't wrong." She lifts her hand close to the kitten's face to let it smell her scent, but it lets out a small hiss and tries to back up in Johnny's hand, digging its sharp and tiny nails into his skin. It's miserably dirty and wet and scared. "Poor thing. I guess we could take it back to my place."

Johnny doesn't even blink at the nails clawing at his skin. He puts his phone away to hold the kitten with both hands for better support, gently pressing its back to his chest. "You sure that's a good idea?"

"Why? 'Cause of Chico?" She asks, referring to her big, but very sweet pitbull. "You know he wouldn't do anythin' to it."

"Yeah, but he tends to get a bit too enthusiastic."

"We'll keep 'em apart. I got somethin' we can wash it with, and there should be some leftover chicken in the fridge. Looks old enough to eat solid food."

"Okay," he says as he puts the kitten back inside his jacket. The warmth of his body seems to calm it down. "We should get outta here before the cops come sniffin'."

"Yeah, I just got a text that they're on their way."

"Troy still mad at you about scorchin' up Shivington?"

"Oh, yeah, as if it was my fault," she says as they get into her car, rolling her eyes and flipping her hair in an exaggeratedly victimized manner. "I mean, it kinda was, but still, he needs to chill. I haven't returned his calls, so he's probably gonna try to bring me in soon."

"I'd like to see him try."

"I dunno, I might let him." She shrugs. "You know, to give him a false feelin' of being in control."

"Really? You gonna suck up to him like that?"

"It's called manipulation, Johnny."

"Sure," he says with a shake of his head. They can both hear sirens in the distance as he pulls his door shut. "Come on, let's go."

 

* * *

 

  
"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Doris says to the loudly meowing kitten trying to escape the towel she's wrapping it in. "I know that was scary, but you'll be much happier now that you're clean."

"Oh, now you like me?" Johnny asks as the kitten manages to grab a hold of his shirt with its tiny claws and refuses to let go. They washed it thoroughly, made sure there weren't any fleas stuck on its skin, and it's no doubt scared of having to go back in the water.

"Hi, gorgeous," Doris says in a soft voice as she finishes dabbing the kitten's face with the towel. "Look at your beautiful blue eyes. They were all covered in discharge, weren't they? Now you can see better, baby."

"It looks like a li'l rat all wet," Johnny says after Doris passes him the kitten burrito. He pets the kitten's head with one finger. It yells at him and he grins a little.

Doris clicks her tongue at his comment. "Rude."

"So, what now?"

"Dry it off and keep it warm," she instructs him.

Johnny does as he's told, slowly drying off the kitten's fur with the towel, while Doris tidies up the counter and changes the band-aid on her still-bleeding arm. She stares at her bruised face, leaning in closer to the mirror, swearing quietly to herself in Spanish.

"You think it's a boy or a girl?" He asks as he picks up a dry towel to change it to the damp one. He's doing his best to make the kitten feel comfortable.

"Let's see," she takes the kitten again to unwrap it from the towel, gently lifting its bottom up, "congratulations, it's a girl."

"You sure?"

"Pretty sure, yeah," she says with a nod and hands him the kitten back. "People used to leave boxes of kittens on our street all the time when I was a kid. Our neighbor liked to take care of 'em. She was a good lady. Gave me piano lessons for free when I helped her out with stuff."

"You play the piano?"

"Yeah."

"Huh. Didn't know that." For someone he calls his best friend, he knows surprisingly little of her, but he supposes that's their thing. She usually likes to act like every little detail about her is a part of a nuclear attack launch code, and needs to be kept secret accordingly, and he likes to call her out on it, to make dry remarks on how she isn't a mysterious female character of a desperately pretentious male author. It's funny how it pisses her off to the point she never knows which argument to start with, _how dare you fuckin' mention somethin' that low in the same sentence with me_ , ending up throwing stuff at him before storming off.

She lets out an adoring sigh when the kitten starts purring at her touch. "Aren't you just the sweetest li'l thing? Let's get you fed, you must be starvin'."

After moving to the kitchen, she dices up plain, cooked chicken into small enough bites for the kitten to eat without trouble. The kitten escapes Johnny's arms to stick her head into the bowl before it touches the table. Doris gives her two long strokes from her head to the end of her tail, and then leaves her to fill up her tiny, empty stomach in peace.

"You're gonna choke like that," Johnny says after watching the kitten gobbling up the food faster than Shaundi devours a plate of nachos in her Wednesday afternoon munchies. He pets her back, but she lets out a noise he's never heard a cat make before. "Why you makin' that noise?"

"She's afraid you'll take her food away."

"Yo, I wouldn't do that." He pulls his hand away. "You can have all the food you want, li'l girl."

"Shit," Doris hisses, grinding her teeth at the pain of trying to stitch her own arm up. She can't see the wound well enough and the skin around it aches.

"You need help with that?"

"Yeah," she says with a sigh, humbling herself to her faith of not being able to handle everything on her own. She had to try, though.

Johnny moves to sit next to her and she pours herself another shot of tequila, downing it in one go, scrunching up her nose at the taste of the cheap liquor. He takes a cotton pad, pours some antiseptic onto it and wipes her skin clean of blood while doing a more thorough job of cleaning the wound than what she managed earlier. She winces at the burning sensation.

"Don't move," he says as he cleans up the needle she tried to unsuccessfully use and starts working on sewing her back together.

"Someone always drinks all the good tequila," she says, turning the bottle around on the table to read the labels. She takes another shot straight from the bottle and bites her teeth together to deal with Johnny poking the needle into her flesh. The liquid burning her throat also works as distraction from him touching her skin.

"Yeah, I wonder who," he replies, the tone of his voice making it very clear that both of them are well aware of who's responsible for the atrocious crime.

"I'm gonna whoop that son of a whore's ass once I find 'em," she says as she ignores him, making him chuckle low. "You didn't get hurt?" She asks.

"Nah." Aside from some bruises, he's good. He's just kind of mad at himself for not paying attention and getting separated from her, because even if he knows she can take care of herself, it's still his job to look out for her. Doris almost getting shot and having her face bruised means he failed. He finishes up stitching the wound fairly quick, cleaning it up once more and wrapping a bandage around her arm. "Done."

"Thanks."

The kitten stretches and yawns in front of the empty bowl, catching Johnny's attention. "Did you get enough to eat, baby-girl?" He asks.

"Gimme your hand," Doris says as she grabs his wrist and pulls it closer to her, takes a clean cotton pad to soak it in antiseptic, and then cleans the cuts on the back of his hand and his fingers. She knows he's not going to bother doing it himself. "She wasn't happy about you pickin' her up, huh?"

"Yeah, she's a feisty one," he says, smiling lovingly at the kitten. "Aren't you, miss Murder?"

"Did you just give her a name?"

"Maybe."

"I guess we should take her to see a vet tomorrow, then," she says and wraps a big, pink band-aid with unicorns and fluffy clouds around his middle finger over a deeper cut, subtly grinning to herself as she hopes he'll forget the band-aid's there and makes the mistake of flipping someone off.

"Who said I'm keepin' her?"

"You just named her Miss Murder. Seems pretty clear to me." She lets go of his hand and starts gathering up the bandages and bottles back into a box she brought from the bathroom. "Besides, she thinks you're her new mommy."

"I dunno what you're talkin' about," he says as the kitten walks up to him and curls up at the edge of the table against his chest to finish cleaning herself. He scratches her back gently and she bumps her head to his chest.

"She already feels safe with you. It's almost like you're meant to be."

"You tryna make me get a cat?"

"Johnny, you did that yourself by pickin' up a filthy stray cat hidin' under a car."

"You ain't a filthy stray cat," he says to the kitten, scratching her by the ears, now, "you're a lady and a natural born killer."

"I bet you wanted to take home that cat you used to feed at the church, too," she says, grinning to herself.

Johnny looks up from the kitten, frowning. "What?"

"You honestly thought nobody noticed?" She snorts. "Dumbass."

"Yo, shut up and get me somethin' to eat."

"What was that?"

"Please."

They fight over what food to order and she gives him Felipe's clothes to wear, noting on how she should just start keeping some of Johnny's own clothes at her place, as he ends up loaning her brother's clothes surprisingly often. They both shower while they wait for the food to arrive. Doris soaks herself up for far longer than Johnny, and when she finally comes out of the bathroom, the food has already arrived and he has started eating without her, so she scolds him for having no manners, but he just tells her to quiet down, pointing at the kitten sleeping next to him on the couch. She slaps his head with a wet towel as punishment, too hungry herself to get into a longer argument. She forgives him when she notices that he left her a bigger share of the shrimp egg rolls she likes, but she still leans over to steal food from his plate as an excuse to be just a little bit closer to him on the couch, claiming it's easier for him to get more food from the boxes on the coffee table, because he's taller than her, and therefore has much longer arms, perfect for reaching for stuff.

The kitten wakes after they're done eating, letting out a string of high-pitched meows, demanding for more food. Johnny gets up from the couch immediately, nearly spilling what's left of the beer in his hand all over the floor, to take her to the kitchen to feed her again, while Doris snorts over him letting yet another female boss him around. It's adorable and it twists her heart a bit in a strange way. Before he got up, she played with the idea of shifting in closer to him after staring at his bicep instead of the FUZZ episode playing right in front of her, wanting to press her bare arm against his. She sighs into her bottle of beer, _congrats on reaching a whole new level of pathetic_ , as she sinks into a self-mocking slouch on the couch.

"Chico's cryin'," Johnny says as he walks back to the living room. He's holding the kitten to his shoulder like he's burping a baby.

"She's not a human baby, Johnny," Doris notes dryly, pushing candy wrappers off her lap on her way to give her dog attention. She locked him up in her bedroom because, as Johnny predicted, he was overly excited to see them, and it took him about three seconds to gain double the excitement over the tiny cat they brought with them.

"Says the woman who puts clothes on her dog."

"Shut up, he gets cold easy!"

"Can you believe her?" Johnny asks the kitten. She meows up at him and he nods. "Yeah, I know."

Doris brings Chico out into the living room to meet the new baby of the gang. Johnny holds the kitten in his hands, ready to pull her away just in case. He worries for no reason, though, because as fast as Chico wags his tail, he's still cautious about approaching the tiny ball of fur. After taking a few sniffs at the kitten, he gives her head an excited lick, but she hisses at him, pulling a short whimper out of him as he backs up behind Doris' legs.

"Did you just—are you scared of a _kitten_?" She asks in disbelief, shaking her head when he looks up at her with his ears flattened against his head. "She hissed at you. It was a tiny hiss."

Johnny snorts. "You really need to stop callin' him your guard dog."

" _Oye_ ," she pouts at him, "let my boy be sensitive."

"He's a puppy in an adult's body," Johnny says as he lets the kitten settle back down into a tiny ball between him and the armrest. He's surprised she hasn't tried running away since he caught her at the docks.

"Don't listen to the mean man, baby," Doris tells Chico while hugging him and planting kisses on his head. "You're perfect the way you are."

After taking her dog out for a quick midnight walk around the block, Doris throws a pillow and a blanket at Johnny as a good night wish before she moves to her bedroom to sleep. Johnny lies down on the couch and drops a few decorative pillows to the floor to make room for the kitten, but she makes her way up to his chest in slow steps, cautiously waiting for a moment before laying down to knead on his shirt, her head setting down as her eyes fall shut and the movements of her paws slow down. Her whole, tiny body vibrates over how loud she purrs.

He watches her fall asleep, feeling much calmer than he has in weeks. "Don't worry, baby-girl," he says quietly, scratching her under the chin and gently petting her back with his huge palm, "you ain't alone no more."

 

* * *

 


End file.
